Hotel Villa Santa Cruz

Our family spent 7 amazing days at Villa Santa Cruz over the Christmas holiday. The attention to detail by the owners is evident throughout this stunning property. They have truly thought of everything. We stayed in a rooftop villa that was spacious and very well-appointed. Breakfast each morning in the main villa was always fresh and flavorful as were the dinners including a special New Year’s Eve buffet of Baja cuisine. The two pools offer a peaceful environment to lounge away the afternoon and a nice stroll across the property to the Green Room provides unique beachfront dining. The staff at Villa Santa Cruz is engaging, kind and very helpful making the whole relaxing experience truly memorable for our family. We look forward to coming back!

Villa Santa Cruz is, in a word, magical! We've enjoyed every minute of our 8 annual visits and think about it (and Todos Santos) virtually every day. Jessica and Matt are wonderful people and hosts and the entire team is fantastic. Everything is perfect - the rooms, pool, food/drinks (both at the Villa the Green Room) and the beach. It's our happy place and will be yours as well. There is nothing like it!!

WOULD NOT RECOMMEND it as a 4-star hotel. THE GOOD: Really nice facilities, beautiful main pool, friendly staff, delicious food, some of which is farm-to-table from the premises, coffee and muffins are brought out to you every morning. We had a 2 hour lapse between checkout (which couldn’t be extended) and leaving for the airport and they let us stay in a room that was available so that we had somewhere to leave our luggage and shower if we wanted to enjoy the facilities. THE BAD: The place does not feel like a 4-star hotel by any stretch of the imagination. It also feels like the place is still under construction. Although they are expanding, some of the main areas have exposed wires where lights normally go, there are lights for paths at night, but they weren’t working, and everything feels new in a sort of unfinished way. The rooms do not have TVs, almost the entirety of the room (we stayed at the 2-bedroom villas) opens to the public pool so there is no privacy (we ended up keeping the curtains closed the whole time), the hot tub wasn’t hot and some of the rooms are very small. The place feels like a new hotel that is still training their staff. Keep in mind that you are in the middle of nowhere, with nothing within walking distance, off a 10 minute drive into town on a very rough and dark dirt road, so walking to town isn’t an option, and it will cost you about $100 USD round trip every time you want to go into town with the hotel’s shuttle (this should be a free service for this level of a hotel, given the cost of the rooms and the location). Although you are on the ocean, the beach is very steep and there are strong currents and rip tides in that section of the ocean which means they highly recommend that you do not get in the water unless you are a very experienced swimmer. That leaves you with the option of two pools on the premises or going on a paid excursion to another place. Although the two restaurants offer delicious food, only one is open for lunch and they are both very expensive. Breakfast is included with a handful of choices of meals, juices and basic coffee, but if you want a cappuccino, a latte or even a hot chocolate, that’s extra. Breakfast can be brought to your room – for an extra charge. In addition, the limited menu does not change so after 3-4 days, we had pretty much tried every meal. This is not a place for picky eaters or those with eating restrictions. Dinner for two at the “Green Room” (which is basically a series of huts with outdoor tables on the beach), will run you about $60-$80 per person, not including dessert or alcohol. Keep in mind that the Green Room, although it is within the hotel’s premises, is not part of the hotel and you cannot charge your meal to your room. In general, we found the hotel was not equipped, nor sometimes willing or able to do anything outside of their food or beverage menu. Keep in mind, this is being touted as a 4-star hotel. Although the staff is friendly, service is very slow (we waited 35 minutes one day for just our coffee and orange juice), and a significant portion of the staff does not speak English well. I understand that we are in a foreign country, however, for a hotel of this caliber that caters to foreigners, the staff should be able to understand simple requests like “dressing on the side”. We ended up spending most of our week there going to other places because after a couple of days, there wasn’t much to do at the hotel. If you are looking for a place where you can just sit by the pool with limited services, if any by the pool, and lounge for most of your time there, this may be for you. It wasn’t for us.

We highly recommend Villa Santa Cruz! Every time we visit Todos Santos it is one of our stops. We feel like family! Service is exceptional, grounds are impeccable. We love Smokey and Owen (the house cat and turtle)!! Most of all a big thank you to Jessica, Marco, and Victor; you are all sincere and wonderful people. Hope to see you soon!

We were in need of a relaxing beach getaway and had heard good things about the vibe in Todos Santos. After some research we selected Villa Santa Cruz due to it's wonderful reviews and seaside location. We were absolutely delighted by our beach front room, the beautiful lush gardens, warm hospitality, food & beverage service. Highly recommend it!